The success of user devices (e.g., computing devices such as computers, cameras, appliances, etc.) may be substantially determined by their ability to communicate with other user devices and the World Wide Web. For example, in a conceptual environment (e.g., Internet of Things (IoT)), devices can communicate with each other and the World Wide Web via various communication protocols. The conceptual environment may include, but is not limited to, home automation, health care, emergency response, intelligent shopping, smart product management, environmental sensing, smart meters, waste management, and urban planning.
One challenge in IoT applications is to add connections within a contention region where available network spectrum is limited. Transmissions from neighboring wireless devices may interfere with each other. For example, for a device to be connected, it usually need use a portion of the spectrum (e.g., wireless band) to send messages to an appropriate receiver. However, when other devices within the contention region also attempt to access the same portion of spectrum, collisions and access delay can become a problem. The problem will likely get worse as the number of devices increases. As more devices attempt to access the same spectrum, more contention between the devices is created and, as a result, some connection attempts may fail.
Further, the issues can get worse when devices use popular wireless bands such as the Industrial, Scientific and Medical Radio Band of 2.4 GHz which is also used by other standards based on different channel definition within the bands. For applications using these bands, IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.15.4 are typically used to share the spectrum and avoid collisions by switching channels in such a way that there is no overlap among utilized channels around neighboring devices. However, if channel allocations within each network are handled independent of other networks on the same band, some important resources (e.g., wireless band) may be wasted or underutilized.
Traditional techniques attempted to separate channels into non-overlapping groups and allow each technology to use channels of its assigned group. Since the channels do not overlap across groups, packet collision can be avoided. However, the exclusivity of channels between different technologies means that the bandwidth assigned to silent group(s) can be wasted.
Other techniques attempted to categorize nodes using the same standard into one group (or cluster) and assign a different channel to each group or cluster of nodes. However, the issue is that a hub is required to act as a cluster head and handle data collection within each cluster. Multiple hubs can tremendously increase costs and the complexity of an IoT and sensor network and negates the purpose of the network.
Therefore, there is a need for solutions to better manage bandwidth distribution among various nodes using different standards within the band.